The Army Corps of Engineers approved dredgingCharlestonharbor-deepening, reports JOC.com.
The 45-foot-deep ship channel will be dredged to as much as 52 feet. The Corps’ approval of the project’s draftenvironmental impact statement sets in motion a process that within five years could provide Charleston, South Carolina, with the East Coast’s deepest channel, according to James Newsome, CEO of the South Carolina Ports Authority.
The EIS will be followed by a 45-day comment period and a pre-construction engineering and design review required for a corps chief’s report, which typically takes about a year and clears the way for congressional appropriations, followed by dredging.
Further, Newsome said that, if all goes well, Charleston’s deepening project could be completed by 2019, and the channel to the port’s main Wando Welch container terminal could be deepened by 2018.
